The Olympic Flame’s journey starts in Olympia, Greece home of the Olympics and arrives in the UK on May 18, 2012 before setting out on a 70-day Torch Relay. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The Olympic Torch is ignited several months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics. Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, perform a ceremony in which the torch is kindled by the light of the Sun, its rays concentrated by a parabolic mirror. The Olympic Torch Relay ends on the day of the openingceremony in the central stadium of the Games. After being lit, the flame continues to burn throughout the Olympics, and is extinguished on the day of the closing ceremony. According to legend, the torch’s flame has been kept burning ever since the first Olympics.